NSIA determines under cultivation land, estimated yield nationwide

KABUL (Pajhwok): Afghanistan's total arable land is more than three million hectares, of which 2.1 million hectares are irrigated and 917,000 hectares is rain fed, an official said on Wednesday.

Abdul Qadir Haji, the acting head the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA), told reporters here that the provincial organizations had been authorized to make corrections in the Computerised Identity Card amide at providing convenience to the people.

He said that this will solve many of the problems of the people and provide them with relevant services in a timely manner.

He added that since the granting of these powers, relevant services have been provided to nearly 30,000 people as of the since February 15^th.

He said that these powers include canceling duplicate ID cards with the same name, age correction (three years for those under 18 and two years for those above), correcting spelling errors, adding, deleting, or correcting surnames, and deleting or adding prefixes and suffixes.

The NSIA recently created an online appointment system to provide greater convenience to the public, which has created unprecedented convenience for the public.

Maulvi Mohammad Nabi Nasrat, Deputy Director of Population Registration at the NSIA, said that the agency has distributed electronic ID cards to nearly two million people across Afghanistan in the past 11 months of the ongoing solar year and has also provided services to over 123,000 people after distributing the ID cards.

He said that since the start of the distribution of electronic ID cards, electronic ID cards have been distributed to over 15 million people across Afghanistan, of which 9,307,000 are men and 6,021,000 thousand are women.

He added that since the Islamic Emirate came to power, electronic ID cards have been distributed to 9,271,000 people.

He added that the NSIA has also provided services related to paper ID cards and birth certificates to the people in an appropriate manner, in addition to electronic ID cards.

He said that in the Sarai Shazada Complex in Kabul, the NSIA have provided services such as paper ID card correction services, distribution of new and special ID cards, and distribution of birth cards and death certificates to approximately 611,000 people.

The NSIA Deputy Head Esmatullah Hakimi said that Afghanistan's imports in the first nine months of the current calendar year were $8.6 billion and exports were $1.3 billion.

He said that exports included raisins, figs, dates, and coal, which were exported to Pakistan, India, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Iran.

He added that during this period, Afghanistan imported goods from Iran, Pakistan, China, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan, but he did not mention the names of the imported goods.

Engineer Abdul Matin Salik, NSIA geographical Information director, said that the agency has used remote sensing technology and satellite imagery to determine the areas under cultivation across the country, including irrigated and dry land.

He said that this solar year, the total cultivated agricultural land in Afghanistan is three million hectares, of which 2.1 million hectares were irrigated and 917,000 hectares is dried fed.

Hakimi added that the findings of this organization showed that wheat was grown on 2.12 million hectares of the cultivated land, of which 1.38 million hectares were irrigated and 736,000 hectares were rain fed.

He added that the country's largest amount of irrigated wheat is grown in Helmand, Kandahar, Farah, and Kunduz provinces, and the largest amount of rainfed wheat is grown in Takhar, Herat, Badghis, and Faryab provinces, with a production rate of approximately 4.83 million metric tons.

He said rice has been cultivated on 129.2 hectares of land in 17 provinces of the country, and the figures showed that 438 thousand metric tons of rice have been produced in the current solar year.

Salik also said that for the first time, the National Statistics and Information Administration has estimated the country's cotton-growing areas using remote sensing technology, and the figures show that this year, cotton was grown on 105,000 hectares of land across the country, yielding approximately 159,000 metric tons.

He says that the most cotton is grown in Helmand, Balkh, Kandahar, and Jawzjan provinces, and last year alone, cotton and cottonseed worth $273 million were exported from the country.

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